Early evening visitor

[crazy8s]

Dogs came in acting frightened, so we had to go see what was up.

Had 3 shots but they are too large
Anyway, all of the animals were put in the house, dog door blocked while i put mister owl in the orchard to find his parents. Went out a couple of hours later and he was gone. Cool to see

[rocks2dust]

Yeah, mom was probably still around, so good idea to lock up the animals until fluffy and they moved on. Those talons are powerful weapons.

[SwordfishMining]

Springtime is for babies. My dog does not like the flying perching things eyeing her carrion.

[PinkDiamond]

Oh, that's too cute!! I would love to find a baby owl, but would be nervous the parents might attack if I tried to move it. I'm glad you were able to do it without them going after you, and I would LOVE to have a nest nearby that I could watch. Do you know where its nest is? There are liable to be other little ones near or still in it if you can find it. Way cool!! I'm so jealous that you got to pick it up!

[crazy8s]

As you can imagine is was not happy with all the attention. They make a strange clicking noise, probably with it's beak. I used a large towel and carried it upside down like you would a chicken and the talons are amazing. Haven't looked for the nest. The welfare hummer is back. I had taken down the feeder for about a month, until a hummer spent sometime looking for it. First one. Now there are at least 4 coming to it. Watched a young hummer trying to feed at unopened flowers. 2 pair of orioles this year that I can see, watched one building it;s hanging nest while taking a break in the shade.

[Rockranger1]

You feed them owls mice 8's. Not hummingbirds? Lol ! Nice shot.

[crazy8s]

Thanks Rock, It freaked me out finding an owl. I'm sure there are plenty of critters for them in the orchard.

[mehoose]

it's an absolute beauty and how amazing you had the chance to be up close and personal.

[PinkDiamond]

I was lucky enough to open the door to put the feeders out this morning, just as a barred owl pounced on something in the grass about 20 feet downhill from the deck, looked at me, and flew into a tree on the other side of what's left of the coop, so I'm not as jealous as I was yesterday.

And for the first time ever, we have orioles that came a good 2 weeks ago, and are still here, which has never happened before, and they not only drink from the hummingbird feeder, but they're also into the woodpecker suet big time. I haven't been out to look for the nests, but now that you mention the shape they form them into I plan to. There are at least 5, and probably 6 of them hanging around, and with them, 3 types of woodpeckers, goldfinches and red finches all over the place, cardinals and indigo buntings, in addition to the more common ones, I've got the most colorful deck in town this year.

[crazy8s]

It's great fun listening and seeing them all. Nice color palette you have going